


Snowstorm

by theoncomingwolf



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-09 16:38:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4356542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoncomingwolf/pseuds/theoncomingwolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This year, the Winter Solstice has brought a blizzard to Central, throwing Maria Ross into the same small diner that Riza's decided to wait out her holiday in. ((Maria/Riza))</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It was supposed to be a one-shot, but I have 3 little chapters already written, so I guess it'll just go until it feels like stopping.

There is a nice diner on 35th, not too far from her apartment, that stays open during Solstice every year. 

Whether the owner doesn’t celebrate the holiday because he never has or because he has no one to celebrate it with, she doesn’t know. He has never asked Riza why she comes in all alone, so she doesn’t ask him why either. 

She spends some holidays with Mustang. His Aunt and “sisters” are welcoming and don’t seem to mind the intrusion, but Solstice is a special one, and Riza doesn’t wish to intrude. She feels a little bad that Mustang has been making the effort to invite her to every holiday they have, seeing as she has no family of her own to spend it with. She accepts the gracious invitations, but not at Solstice. She thinks she should leave at least one for Roy to spend with his Aunt without her being there, too.

Over the years, she has made a small tradition of spending her Solstice at the little diner on 35th. The owner, an aging Xingese man by the name of Ji, always seems pleased to see her when she steps through the doors each year. 

This Winter Solstice has brought somewhat of a blizzard to town. She thinks that Olivier Armstrong would laugh at what Central has classified as a blizzard, but the weather is quite uncharacteristic for the area, and no one really knows how to handle it. The roads are eerily quiet, even for a holiday. Riza kind of loves it. 

She arrives at the diner, covered in snow. Ji gives her a delighted smile from the counter, clasping his hands together in greeting.

She gives a genuine smile back. Her father was never one to do holidays, so Riza doesn’t know why she feels to the need to do something on this day, but she does, so here she is. Normally, she is rather used to being the only customer. 

One year, a family of 6 came in really late, laughing about how their dinner burned and they thought they’d just come for steak and eggs and pie, as long as they were all together.  
Sometimes, someone pops in for drinks or food, disappearing out the door with to-go bags.  
This is the first year that Riza has entered to find another occupant. 

An occupant she recognizes, no less. 

Maria Ross is slumped in a booth in the corner, staring dejectedly at her coffee, absentmindedly stirring it with her spoon. Any snow she got hit with has melted, but her black coat still holds a slight shine from the water. 

Riza stands by the door for a moment, watching the other woman, but she doesn’t look up- or seem to notice that anyone has come in at all. After a moment’s deliberation, Riza walks over and slides into the seat across from her. 

Maria looks up in surprise, dropping her spoon, which clinks lightly against the inside of the cup. Riza smiles politely at her, pointing to Maria’s coffee with a look at Ji to indicate that she would like one as well. 

She waits for Ross to speak first- Riza isn’t much of a conversational type anyway- she prefers nice, comfortable silence, or listening if she has to without interjecting much. If it were any other day, she would have found her own seat far from Maria’s, but it is a holiday and she knows Ross should have family in town- that was her alibi for the night of the Hughes murder, after all. 

“H-Hey, Major.” Ross greets, a confused- though not displeased- expression on her face.

“Ross,” Riza answers cooly, “I hope you don’t mind if I join you- are you meeting anyone?”

“No,” she sighs, taking a sip of her coffee. She grimaces a little. Riza’s sure she’s stirred all of the heat right out of it. 

Ji comes by, sliding the coffee out from under Maria’s hand, replacing with with a fresh one and handing Riza one of her own as well, murmuring a polite, “Happy Solstice, Miss Riza.”

“And to you.”

Ross stirs her fresh coffee, titling her head at Riza, “you come here often?” she asks.

“A few times a year,” Riza says.

“Nowhere to be?” Maria asks; Riza shakes her head no.

“Me either,” Ross says. 

Riza hands over the sugar pot and slides the little jug of milk over, so Maria’s stirring will accomplish something other than rapidly cooling her second coffee. She glances at the menu, pretending to consider the options, though in truth, she orders the same thing every time she comes. Maria looks down at hers too. 

“What’s good here?” she asks. 

“”I’m not sure,” Riza answers, honestly, “I like their biscuits and gravy...”

It’s an unusual dish for Central, but Riza’s from out in the country, where it was a common breakfast item.

“It’s snowing pretty hard,” Maria says, breaking the silence that has fallen between them once more, “it’s too cold out.”

“Your coffee’s going to be cold too, in a minute.” Riza says.

Maria pauses, taking the spoon out. She takes a careful sip of her coffee, but gulps it down rather quickly as she realizes that Riza’s right. It’s warm, but no longer hot. 

“Why aren’t you with your family?” Maria asks.

“Don’t have any,” Riza shrugs, “why aren’t you?”

Maria pauses for a moment, but does not comment on Riza’s reason.

”Oh, they’re just out of town. I was supposed to drive and see them, but the conditions aren’t really safe. They closed the bridge.”

“They don’t live in Central?”

“Not anymore. They moved when they thought I died and they’re too settled for me to ask them to move back now. I think dad found a job he liked more and my brothers like their new school....” Ross smiles, “Well, at least I’m not all alone for Solstice.”

Ji comes by to take their orders. Maria orders the t-bone steak and Riza nods, a tad embarrassed, when he asks if she would like her usual order.

“Have you heard from Ed and Al recently?” Maria asks. 

Riza’s always happy to see how many people those boys charmed. She’d heard nice things about Maria from Al. Ed liked her too, she thinks, but tended not to say anything, with hopes that they would discontinue sticking him with a bodyguard.

“I haven’t seen them since the hospital. Al’s written. I’ve had a call from Al and a few from Ed, but mostly because his friend Winry likes to speak with me sometimes.”

“They haven’t called me,” Maria says, but there’s a smile on her face. 

She pushes her hair, now grown out enough to cover a good portion of her forehead, back. It sticks up for half a second, before bouncing back and fluttering down, a little less flat than before. 

Riza’s been contemplating cutting hers short again. She hasn’t quite decided yet, but she liked how easy it was to manage when she wore it very cropped on the back. Ross’ hair is a little longer than hers was in those days. A bit fluffier. It looks soft.

Riza’s snapped away from that train of thought when Ji arrives with their food, setting down Maria’s t-bone steak- which smells amazing- and giving Riza her biscuits and gravy, two eggs over medium on the side, with an accompanying bottle of hot sauce. She carefully puts all the pieces together, cutting open the biscuits, laying the eggs inside, and smothers the whole thing in enough pepper sauce so that the white gravy has a reddish tint to it. 

Maria makes a little happy sound at her food, grinning up at Riza with a closed mouth.

“This is good,” she mumbles.

“Good,” Riza laughs.


	2. Chapter 2

“It’s gotten worse,” Riza marvels.

She’s hardly seen snow in her life, mostly during a couple of trips to Briggs, which pretty much guaranteed she was never going to accept the job offers from General Armstrong. Riza doesn’t handle the cold well, which she is sure shows. She’s pulled her scarf up to cover her mouth, squinting unhappily at uncomfortable stinging feeling on her face. She inches closer to Maria and stares at the ground, stuffing her hands in the bottom of her coat, cursing her shallow pockets.

Maria laughs, looping an arm through Riza’s and edging closer for warmth.

“Where do you live?” Riza asks, turning her head to speak the question in Maria’s ear.

“Just off Duval,” Maria says, “I was at that diner for a while. It had only just started snowing when I arrived- I thought they might reopen the bridge, so I thought I’d hang around the area. I left my bags at home at least, to go back for... Glad I decided against carrying them.”

“...I do hope you aren’t planning on going all the way back to your apartment,” Riza says, very much concerned at the thought, “I live right here, if you’d like?”

Maria looks the direction Riza’s cold finger is pointing, more than a little relieved at the offer. The apartment building in question was in sight. Unlike hers, which is pretty far. She nods, pulling a pathetic face at the blonde.

She watches Riza trying to stuff her cold hand back under her coat. Laughing, Maria grabs it, holding her hand and putting both of their hands in her left pocket, which is deep enough to warmly fit both.

“I’ve got to get that coat,” Riza says, a lot more comfortable. One one side at least. She wonders how rude it would be to put her left hand right in her pants, “instead of this pocketless piece of shit.”

Maria’s grin has not left her face since they’ve stepped outside, despite the pain it is causing her chilled face. She’s finding major Hawkeye to be quite delightful and something about hearing the normally serious officer cussing in such a casual way amuses her to no end, despite hearing her fair share of language, being in the military. She wonders if Hawkeye cussed before she joined. Maria didn’t- now she certainly does.

To Maria’s delight, when they arrive at the front door of her apartment building, Riza does not take her hand back. Instead, she unbuttons her coat with her free and and proceeds to use her left hand to dig around in the inside pocket on the left side. It appears to be no easy feat, but just as Maria is considering letting go, Riza fishes out a key. The wrong key, as it happens.

“Hold on, this is to my front door,” she says, sticking the cold metal in-between her teeth and going into the pocket again to feel for the building key.

Maria is not so cold that she needs to let go of Riza’s hand to speed them up, but the thinks she can be helpful anyway. She reaches into Riza’s pocket- the blonde immediately stops digging and takes the key out of her mouth, letting her free hand fall to her side as Maria retrieves the main key and opens the door.

Maria keeps close as they walk up the stairs- the hallways are fairly cold too. Riza finally releases her grip, taking her hand out of Maria’s coat as they reach her front door.

There’s excited barking from inside and Maria is immediately pounced upon by Hayate as the door swings open.

“Bad dog,” Riza scolds, as Maria steps back to avoid being knocked over by the paws at her hips.

“It’s okay,” Maria says, crouching down and running her hands through the dog’s warm fur.

Riza steps inside, leaving the door open for Maria; the pup excitedly turns around to follow her, nudging against his mistress’ leg.

The apartment is nice- a good size for one person. A short hallway leads into a kitchen with a table and a bedroom branches off to the right. There are some cardboard boxes stacked up in the corner, but aside from them, everything seems neat.

Riza moves the kettle onto the stove, bending down to scoop Hayate into her arms.

“I really should take him outside for a minute- do you mind?” Riza asks, heading towards the door at Maria’s head-shake, “there are blankets and things in that closet, if you need to warm up.”

Maria peeks into the closet, deciding that getting out of her wet coat, at least, might not be such a bad idea. It’s surprisingly cluttered, stuffed full of jackets, blankets, boxes, and a spare pillow. She’s assuming that she is to spend the night, as surreal as that thought is, and grabs the warmest. A thought hits her as she’s hanging her own coat up, and she glances around the room, suddenly aware that Riza Hawkeye does not own a couch.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More at last! I like writing this story. Not sure how long it'll go on, but hopefully more obvious flirting and eventually kisses lies in their future, so I think at least long enough for that. Things kind of just happen when I write, but I'll try to point it in that direction.

Riza returns a few minutes later, still holding Hayate. He is too big a dog to hold, Maria thinks, but both pet and owner seem happy. She’s holding him in one arm, playing with his feet with her free hand in an attempt to warm his cold paws after their time in the snow. She sets him down as the kettle whistles, and he runs to Maria’s side.

“I’m having black tea,” Hawkeye says, moving two cups from her cupboard, “but I also have green, hot chocolate, or coffee, if you’d like.”

“Hot chocolate?” Maria says- it’s her favorite.

Hawkeye dishes some brown powder from a ceramic pot on her counter into one of the cups. Maria expects her to just add the boiled water, but instead, she reaches under the sink for a small pot, adding milk and setting it on the stove. Maria feels bad for the trouble, but it’s too late to change her order.

“Happy Solstice.” Maria chirps, remembering all of the sudden what day it is.

“You too.”

“What do you usually do for the Holiday?” Maria asks, “Any traditions?”

Riza shrugs, “I go to that diner usually- Ji is nice,” she notes Maria’s surprised look, “I didn’t celebrate it much as a kid, either. My dad did birthdays and things, but wasn’t big on Solstice. I had a friend who’d play up all the holidays, but he always went out of town for the big ones. What about you?”

“Oh all sorts of things,” Maria says- Solstice is her very favorite- “we open crackers at dinner and eat turkey and have hot chocolate while we do the presents...”

She’s sad to be missing out, but as Riza moves a steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of her, she feels a wave of gratefulness wash over her.

“One down at least,” Riza says, “I have crackers, but only of the edible variety. No crowns for us tonight.”

“That’s alright,” Maria giggles.

Riza looks past Maria’s shoulder at the boxes as she sips quietly on her tea.

“Pardon the mess,” she says, “I put away most of the moving boxes when I was on forced leave after the... incident during the solar eclipse, but there are still some things left. I should get rid of them, I guess, if I don’t care enough to unpack them.”

Maria glances over at them, acting a little as if it’s the first time she’s noticed.

They talk for a while about whatever comes to mind- the small goings on at Central HQ when there’s a lull, and some proper talk once they grow more comfortable. Riza seems to be more relaxed when she’s listening, so Maria finds herself doing a lot of the talking.

Sometime during the conversation, they finish their drinks. Riza reaches into the very back of a cabinet and pulls out a vaguely pricey bottle of wine. She shrugs it off as having been a gift when Maria asks, and opens it, pouring them both a high glass. 

It’s nice- sweeter than the wine she’s used to, without that bitter edge that Maria has never loved about wine. When she’s finished her first glass, Riza pours her another, quietly assuring her she shouldn’t feel pressured to finish it if she doesn’t want.

The snow is, miraculously, still falling outside. It has slowed to a lazy drift that seems a little less threatening to walk in, but it has also gotten late. Too late for Maria to head back, if Hawkeye was ever going to allow that to be an option anyway.

Riza drinks the last of her drink, squinting at the clock for a good few moments.

“Well,” she says, “I’m thinking of heading to bed now- is midnight late enough for a Solstice celebration?”

“Late enough for me,” Maria agrees- she’s a bit tired, but mostly she doesn’t want to keep Hawkeye up, who’d had a shift early that morning.

“I don’t have a couch or anything, but Catalina insists my bed is big enough for two-” Riza says, “-she crashes here sometimes. It used to be so she didn’t have to get a hotel room, but now she lives in Central and still does it, so hopefully that means it’s not too cramped.”  
“Sounds fine,” Maria says, cursing that her voice sounds a little higher than normal.

Riza returns to hand her some pajamas before slipping into the bathroom with her own pair. Maria scrambles to quickly change in her kitchen. Riza returns dressed, pulling the collar up at the back of her neck so it stands taller.

In her hands are the folded clothes the was just wearing, a holster, and a gun. Maria wonders how she’s missed that when rifling through Riza’s coat pocket, and figures the holstered side must have been the one closest to her.

“All yours,” Riza says, heading into her bedroom. 

Maria takes the opportunity to pee, hoping all the liquids she’s consumed don’t wake her up in the middle of the night, although she knows they probably will. 

Riza’s sitting crosslegged on the far side of her bed, closest to the wall, when Maria enters. It’s a plainly decorated bedroom. The bed is a Full, with plain blue sheets. There are a couple of pictures stuck next to the window on the dresser- one of Hawkeye’s team, one with just her and Mustang, one of her and Catalina, and one recent photo of Ed and Al and Winry. Maria stares at the picture for a moment. Al’s got a body, unlike most of the time she’s known him, and he actually looks like he’s eaten in his life, unlike the last time she saw him. Maria’s not sure she’d even realize who it was if he wasn’t standing next to Ed. 

“Nice, huh?” Riza says fondly.

Hawkeye has a bit of a reputation for being a hard-ass at work, which was sometimes a fun conversation topic with the boys. Al would say that she was kind and Maria would pass on a story from one of the soldiers about how frightening or strict she was, that would often make the boys laugh. Ed especially appreciated hearing about when the first-lieutenant intimidated people. Maria can now see why their view was a little different sometimes.

“Yeah,” Maria says, grinning back at Riza and climbing under the covers next to her.

Riza gestures to the lamp next to Maria, turning her back and reaching a hand behind her neck to once more mess with her collar.

“Goodnight,” Maria says.

“Goodnight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Solstice crackers are the same as English (+other?) Christmas Crackers, which is a tradition I love at Christmas. They're like popper "fireworks" mixed with wishbones and stuffed with a toy, a joke/riddle, and a paper crown, to be worn at the dinner table. I'd suggest a google if you're not familiar.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long! I left my notebook at home when I left for college and had liked what I'd written well enough to want to keep it.   
> Enjoy! Thx for reading. 
> 
> I hope this formats well. I'm posting on mobile.

Maria wakes up rather suddenly. She’s not 100% sure where she is for a moment, but she soon remembers as her knee rams hard into something soft next to her. Riza Hawkeye does not take entirely well to being kneed in the back in the middle of deep sleep and sits up just as quickly, hand shooting to the space between the bed and the wall, gazing around in a panic.

“Sorry!” Maria whispers, although Hawkeye is clearly already awake, “something touched my foot.”

Hawkeye says nothing for a moment, gaze traveling from Maria to the excited ball of fur wagging his tail furiously at the end of the bed, bathed in the patch of light coming through the window. After another pause, she pulls her hand out from the space between the edge of the wall, glancing down to make sure the weapon she keeps there is secure.

“Hayate- bad dog.” Riza says, laying back down, “He likes to lick toes.”

Maria laughs, wondering if this is why Riza is wearing socks to bed, or if that is unrelated, but all the movement does is make her realize that she has to pee painfully badly. That’s what multiple glasses of wine before bed does to a person, she thinks, rolling out of bed to head to the bathroom.

When she steps out, Riza is in the kitchen, blearily setting on the coffee-pot. Maria hopes that her bathroom break wasn’t what convinced her they were getting up at 7- she would rather like to flop back into Riza’s comfortable bed and mull a bit over whether she imagined Riza sleeping so close to her at one point in the night that her knees and shins were pressed into Maria’s back. Instead, she sits, mulling over the thought at the less-comfortable table, as Riza silently makes her way around the kitchen.

She’s in the middle of pulling out eggs and ham steak from the fridge when Black Hayate sits in the hall, trying to clue is master in that he, too, has to pee very bad.

Riza heads towards the closet with a sigh.

“I can take him!” Maria offers, “I could stand to be useful.”

Riza doesn’t protest, smiling in thanks at Maria as she reaches in to grab her coat.

Hayate follows Maria out without a leash, well behaved all the way down to the door. He heads out to what was probably a grassy spot before snow coated it, and melts a bit before heading back to the door as quickly as he can. Maria considers picking him up as Riza had done, but she doesn’t quite feel like juggling so much dog so early in the morning, and decides his feet will warm on their own.

When they return, Riza is cooking ham over the stove, which sits in a frying pan, sharing the space with some baked beans. Hayate steps forward to greet her. Riza lifts a leg, rubbing her ankle against the underside of the pup’s ribs as she cracks a couple of eggs into a small frying pan on the other burner and tosses some cut tomatoes into the first. 

At Maria’s offer of help, she tells where the mugs are and how she’d like her coffee.

Maria is happy to find that Riza Hawkeye is a good cook. The breakfast is delicious and, possibly more impressively, all hot. She managed to finish everything at the same time, something Maria has never excelled at. 

 

"Sleep alright?" Riza asks, scooping up an equal amount of ham, egg, mushroom, tomato, and baked bean onto an overstuffed fork. 

 

"Very well, thanks," Maria mumbles, swallowing her bite of toast, "you?"  
Mouth full with the forkfull of breakfast, Riza merely nods. 

 

There is what Maria hopes to be a comfortable silence afterward. The Major had hardly seemed very talkative, but that seemed to be more of a personal preference than a lack of things to say.

 

"This is wonderful," Maria says, in case the silence is not a comfortable one after all.   
She flashes back to the time she'd a little too enthusiastically complimented a girl and never heard from her again. She had decided to use less intense words on people, but there her mouth went, betraying her again. 

 

Truthfully, Maria meant the entire situation, but fortunately Riza assumes she was referring to breakfast, which was both also true and a much more normal thing to call wonderful. 

 

"Thank you!" Riza says, smiling, "I like cooking. It is especially nice when I have someone to cook for- I should have you over more often."

 

"Okay!" Maria says, enthusiastically, "I'm a shit cook, but you can come over anyway if you ever want."

 

It's not completely accurate- Maria isn't the best, but shit's a bit harsh. Still, it delivers its intended effect, which is a laugh from Riza. 

 

"I'll have to be the judge of that," Riza says. 

 

She stands to pour them some more coffee, also serving Maria the last of the baked beans and nabbing the uneaten tomatoes from Maria's plate to move them to her own. 

 

"The snow stopped," Maria points out. 

 

"Sometime last night," Riza adds, "it's going to be slushy soon. Central isn't really meant for snow."

 

"Hm, I guess I should leave soon," Maria reluctantly says, "so I don't have to swim home."   
It's a weak joke, but Riza smiles at her before reaching over to clear the plates. 

 

Maria moves over to the closet, grabbing her coat from inside. When she turns, Riza is smiling, expression more amused than after Maria's latest joke. 

 

Before she can ask "what?" Maria realizes she is still wearing the pajamas Riza leant her. 

 

"I mean, you can borrow them if you want," Riza teases, "I can always have you over another time to return to you your clothes... How's Friday?"

 

"Friday?"

 

"Dinner? I'm off past 4, but whatever day works for you."

 

"No, Friday is great," Maria says, trying hard to keep her grin at a normal size, "...I, uh, don't have to actually leave in these pajamas to keep this offer open do I?"

 

Riza laughs, which- cute as it is- Maria mostly just hopes means no. Because she will.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Shout out to the lovely people who have commented so far. I do not have a large amount of readers, based on the number of kudos, but I always get comments anyway. Thanks so much. ❤️❤️

"I need tonight off- if that is okay, sir."

It's going to be her or Brosh at the station tonight. Technically, as first Lieutenant, Maria has first dibs at schedule picks, but she still does need to run it by her boss, in case he decides otherwise. As it is, the sudden schedule change could really fall to either one of them, and Maria is not going to bail on Riza so she can sit around at Central command for 5 extra hours. She's happy to make up the shift next time something happens. 

"As you wish, Lieutenant Ross," Armstrong says, "but I'll need a good reason."

She knows he doesn't need a good reason- he is just kind of nosy. Fortunately he is kind and if she brushes it off, he won't push and will just give her the night off anyway. Unfortunately, Denny is also in the room. And he won't drop anything. 

"Yeah Ross, got a date?"

"I have... a dinner."

"A dinner date?"

Maria shakes her head, but says nothing. Trying too hard to deny it won't do any good unless she tells him who it's with and in this case, saying she is having dinner with Riza Hawkeye will not let her off the hook.

There aren't a lot of women at Central command and Major Hawkeye is undeniably pretty. If Maria is going to have a crush on anyone, Denny's got to know it's going to be her. Her friend Catalina, at least, is so loudly and clearly straight that Maria can hang out with her, no questions asked. Hawkeye, however, seems to be a closed book to most. Maria is still holding out hope that she has a chance. Denny's likely to assume that too, and he can't keep a damn secret. 

"Who with?" 

Maria still says nothing. 

"Leave her alone, Sergeant," Armstrong booms, "Ross! Enjoy your date. I'll give you the night off."

"It's not a date," she says, but no one listens.

\---

There are extra shifts that night thanks to some arrests in the poorer part of Central earlier in the day. The risk is low, but on the off something happens, they'll need extra bodies at the station to handle the extra activity.

Hawkeye's request that she not be assigned for the night does not escape Mustang's notice, but he merely okays her request, assigning Fuery from her direct subordinate line and Breda from his own to take shifts later in the night. 

She is very sure he's going to ask later, but for now, he lets Hawkeye end her shift at the normal time and wishes her a good night.

She decides to stop by Armstrong's office on her way out. 

"Sergeant Major Fuery will be taking over for your officer's late shift tonight, so they are permitted to leave when he arrives," Riza tells the Colonel, casually adding, "Who is he taking over for?"

"Sargeant Brosh," he tells her. 

Riza nods, turning to Maria with a smile. 

"The ground door is unlocked most days," Riza tells her, "but in the event it is locked you'll have to use the radio on the door to signal 414."

She watches as Maria's eyes widen oddly, but the other woman smiles and nods anyway. A glance at Brosh reveals a different, but even stranger expression. He looks a little surprised, with a large smile on his face as he salutes her a farewell. 

"Have a nice night, Major," Colonel Armstrong laughs, on her way out. 

Riza thanks him, and leaves more than a little confused.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurrah, a new chapter! This one was harder to write, as I needed the conversation to be interesting and not run on too long, but seeing as they were having dinner together, I needed to have talking. I also was struggling with what I wanted to have happen. But yeah, more chapters to come!

The ground door is unlocked. The last time, in the snow, it had been locked, but Maria supposes that was due to how many people would be out of town for the Solstice. 

Maria wishes a little that Hawkeye had not opted to share how to get into the building, or that she had at least done so before Maria allowed her coworkers to assume she had a date. It was somewhat difficult to reverse the implication after the fact. 

Denny had continued to joke to her about it while she prepared to leave the office and Armstrong's only contribution was to say, "Don't tease Lieutenant Ross about her date with Major Hawkeye," despite her continued insistence that it was nothing of the sort.

Though, she wouldn't complain if that's what it was...

Hayate greets her as enthusiastically as last time. She swipes his paws off her leg before Hawkeye can chastise him and crouches to pet the pup. 

Riza, leaning against the door frame, looks down with an affectionate eye, though for who, she cannot tell.

"Come on in, Maria," she says, turning away and heading to the stove in the kitchen, "food will be ready in about ten minutes."

"You look great," Maria tells her, setting down her bottle of wine on the table.

She ruffles her hair nervously at the back- it's not much of a secret that she's a lesbian, so making nice comments towards other women always leaves her a tad worried. She'd like not to be, but the undercurrent of fear that a girl will be creeped has always bothered her. 

"Thank you," Riza says, "you look lovely yourself- I like the hair."

Her eyes crinkle with a smile; she doesn't seem to smile much with her teeth. 

Maria smoothes a hand over her hair; it's secured with a headband, but the main trick is the gel, which keeps all the little hairs out of her face.

"You used to have yours short, didn't you?" Maria says, to break the silence that falls once Riza turns back to her stirring. 

"Yes; I'm thinking of cutting it short again- maybe I'll save it for a rainy day," she says, "next time I'm sad I'm going to cut it. Cropped at the back and a little fluffy at the top, just like I always used to have it."

"Your head will feel really light," Maria says, thinking of her drastic haircut upon enrolling. 

"Will it? The last time I had it all cut I was just a little kid," Riza says, "there's glasses and a corkscrew in there, if you don't mind."

Maria opens the cabinet with the glasses on the first guess, based on the major's vague hand gesture, but it takes her a couple drawers to find the corkscrew. 

She sets to work removing the nice foil wrapper while Riza dishes food into bowls. 

The blonde slides into the chair next to Maria's leg just as she is considering using her teeth on the damn thing. Riza says nothing, just sits patiently, one hand settled lightly atop the other. 

"Forget it," Maria says, using the corkscrew on the unopened foil. The cork pops out, taking a bit of the red metal with it, but a majority is still wrapped spikily around the edge, swirling the wine into an odd shape as it pours out. She twists the bottle carefully upon lifting it and pours herself a glass as well.

"Thank you," Riza says quietly, smiling as she takes her glass.

She reaches it across the table and Maria picks up her own just in time for Riza to lightly clink them together.

"Mhm," Riza hums appreciatively, "this is nice."

All wine tastes mostly the same to Maria, except on rare occasions, so she can't really tell why, but she's happy it's well received. Or Hawkeye is just being nice. She'll take it either way.

What doesn't taste all the same to Maria is food. The steaming noodles are covered with a light sauce, littered with bits of sausage and peppers. It's absurdly good. 

She makes her own little noise of appreciation- it was supposed to be words, but her mouth is too full of noodles for that.

"Thank you, I think," Riza says, with a light laugh. 

"This is great."

Maria eats a little slower, savoring each bite. She glances down at Hayate, trying not to just stare at Riza across the table. The dog looks back at her, lifting its head from its paws. Past the dog, Maria realizes the packing boxes stacked in the corner are gone.

"Winry called last night to tell me about a soldier she fitted automail for last week. He lost part of his leg in a Promised Day injury," Riza comments, "Ed wasn't in town with her, but she insists he will be very jealous when she tells him about the snow we had. She also said some nice things about you."

"Me?"

She'd hardly even met Winry, aside from a confusing incident in which she eventually learned Al didn't have a lot going on beneath the armor, and again, briefly, a couple other times. 

"She was around when you were framed, killed, and revealed as alive to Ed. I guess they told her a lot of good things." 

"That's nice," Maria says; she always feels a little odd talking about the incident- the lies were hard on her family and friends, and the crime she was framed for was personal to many, "How in on that were you? I... No one really thought I'd done it, right? People claim they knew I was innocent, but it's hard to know if that's true."

"People tend to believe what they're told," Riza says, a little disappointingly, "Our team was behind you all the way, if it helps. I believe there were contingency plans in case we were wrong, but the whole thing was a little convoluted. Brosh told everyone he knew that you were innocent. And... Well, Ed said he really thought Armstrong might rip the head off Mustang's shoulders at the morgue. Sweet man."

The last bit is said without a tone of sarcasm; Hawkeye does truly seem to respect Armstrong. She wonders if that influenced their opinion on her innocence at all. 

She remembers how kind Mustang's team was to her. Hawkeye was apparently on watch duty for the whole thing, which limited how much Maria saw her, but Havoc was reassuring, waiting with her the whole night while her escape was arranged and pretending not to notice the way Maria's eyes would water from time to time. Breda made the trek into the desert with her and was occasionally funny enough that she's decided to ignore that he was apparently there to shoot her if she was guilty. 

She considers thanking Riza, but this is all kind of a heavy topic for this nice little dinner, so she asks how work has been going, instead.

Her answer seems to match Maria's- busy. There have been a lot of governmental changes as of late, which brings more paperwork in addition to some additional crime. Which then also brings its own paperwork. Maria's promotion to First Lieutenant brought with it some additional responsibility, but the main change hails from Armstrong's promotion to Colonel. 

Hawkeye has had some responsibility changes herself, what with the quick jump to Captain and then Major in a short amount of time thanks to the eviction or death of many high ranking officers. Her official team consists of Sergeant Major Kain Fuery and First Lieutenant Rebecca Catalina- although they tend to still work very closely with Mustang's group, now down Falman and up a couple of Grumman's trusted soldiers. Mustang still seems to be warming up to them. 

Rebecca's transfer from Eastern seems to have her very happy. Riza admits freely that she enjoys having the boisterous woman around. Havoc and Breda love her too, and Maria is finding her to be a very good friend.

The topic finds itself settled on Rebecca, eventually. It’s not new information to Maria that Rebecca and Riza used to be roommates- Rebecca brings up Riza often enough in conversation and Maria’s heard pieces of stories.

Rebecca claims Riza saved her ass from getting in trouble a few times when they were cadets- it’s not surprising to Maria that Rebecca was less than a model cadet at times, seeing as she seems ready to leave the military at any moment as it is. She’s also heard that the two used to hang out at bars from time to time. Riza was a little younger than the average cadet, but since soldiers are not usually permitted to enroll until 16, her uniform allowed her access.

Rebecca’s story of funtimes barhopping is a little different from Riza’s perspective, which is that she went so Rebecca wouldn’t go alone and maybe die. 

“Is that how you ended up dating the bartender?” Maria asks.

“How much did that woman tell you?” Riza sighs, refilling their glasses, “Yes, but that wasn’t until I was already a Lieutenant, in Eastern.”

“What was... the bartender like?” Maria asks, avoiding pronouns because she has heard none so far; she’s still holding out hope.

Riza smiles at her, eyes a little narrowed. Maria’s not sure if it’s because Maria's prodding or because she noticed the odd phrasing of Maria’s question.

“Nice,” Riza offers, “quite a bit more extroverted than I am. I always seem to make friends with some fairly energetic people. I’m not sure what they like about me, really.”

“You’re lovely!” Maria says, then a little less keenly, “I’m sure that’s what.”

“Thanks,” Riza says, forming a loose fist with her hand and tapping her pinky knuckle across the back of Maria’s fingers, “what about you- any girlfriends?”

“At some point,” Maria laughs, not daring to move her hand from the table in case Riza decided to touch it again, “none right now.”

“Hm,” Riza says, setting down her glass as she stands to collect their empty bowls, “Would you like anything else to eat? Or coffee? Hot chocolate?”

“Maybe coffee,” Maria says, “wondering how it’ll taste after the wine, though.”

“Well... Do you like iced coffee?”

“Never had it,” Maria admits, though she’s thinking it might be too cold for such a thing.

“Have you had a brown cow- kahlua and cream? It’s nice- tastes like iced coffee, if only you had the comparison.”

“No, but I’m willing to try,” Maria says, a little enthusiastically; it’s this sentence she’ll remember well in the morning when her hangover hits.


End file.
